Could Arsenal’s new midfield be Torreira and Banega? What about Ramsey?

Ever since Gilberto Silva left Arsenal, Arsenal have not really brought in a defensive midfielder that can be said to be the true replacement for the Brazilian. We have had Denilson, Song, Coquelin, Flamini, Arteta and now Xhaka but bar Arteta and Flamini all were big flogs.

Arteta was really never a defensive midfielder but whenever he was called upon, he always did a good job. Flamini was superb but didn’t last long before leaving on a free transfer to AC Milan. Xhaka who was signed two years ago, was who I personally thought would be the solution to our defensive problems. Unfortunately so far, he has shown to be more of a deep lying midfielder (box to box if you want) than a defensive midfielder.

He had a terrible start to last season which affected our final standing and from all indications Emery has replaced him with Lucas Torreira who rumours has that has signed for us and is only waiting for a medical to be done for the deal to be final once Uruguay finishes their world cup campaign.

But despite the reports of Torreira deal being all but done, rumours are that Arsenal are interested in signing Sevilla star Éver Banega which sounds very odd to me. Unless someone is leaving our team, we really do not need another defensive midfielder if truly we are signing Torreira, which I think we are.

According to the reports, Éver Banega has a release clause put at €20 million which considering the inflation in the market is quite cheap. Personally I won’t mind if Banega is coming in as a replacement for Elneny who if you ask me will be sold this summer. Xhaka doesn’t look like he will be sold after signing a new contract. Elneny is the likeliest to leave to free space for Banega. With Wilshere also gone, we should have room for Banega but only IF Elneny is getting sold. Cazorla is also gone which makes our options even more limited if Elneny goes.

What will however be interesting to see is who Emery will play as the first choice among Xhaka, Torreira and Banega (if the later two indeed end up at ours). He could rotate two of them for the Premier league and Europa but will the third person who will hardly play unless in the cup games be happy?

Or could it also be that Ramsey is leaving? I hope not but unless he signs a new contract, I won’t rule it out.

Anthony

Share this:

90 Comments

People keep talking about every other player being on the bench apart from Ozil, but since Unai taking over I am yet to hear any rumour of him preferring Ozil in any of his plans. I keep hearing he like Ramsey, Xhaka, Aubameyang, Mkhitaryan, Toreira, Bellerin etc.. But never Ozil. Why do people overlook this?
May be Ozil is also not in Unai’s plans but because of his new £350,000 a week contract he is more likely to stay. Stays but surplus to Unai’s plans.

True story – one day while texting on his phone, Banega began crossing the road. He did not realise there was a car coming. By the driver saw Banega it was too late but fortunately I was crossing from the other direction and grabbed hold of him.

Upon saving his life, Banega asked me what team do you support. I said Arsenal and he told me that he was so grateful to my act of heroism that he would sign for Arsenal if I wanted him to.

Anyone could well conclude that you did not rate Wenger! I wonder why. Or rather I DO NOT! That is a real coincidence, which you share with tens of thousands of other Gooners. I note that Wenger has still not landed a job yet, even though he was APPARENTLY always turning down top clubs while he was still here. I predict he will never again work as manager of a really top club , abroad or in England. Maybe as a national manager with a lower placed country, a consultant or in a boardroom. At top level and esp as a coach, he is widely seen as proven damaged goods and behind the times in this modern age.

No one forces you to read it. We have freedom to write what we think, at least within the bounds of decency. So, thanks for your concern but I WILL CONTINUE NOT TO CONSULT YOU ON WHAT I POST and don’t mind in the slightest if you don’t read it. I MAY PAY YOUR POSTS THE SAME RESPECT AND IGNORE THEM IN FUTURE.

st sass, the world is still round, our club is still the best in the world and, YES, I am still a great admirer of the Wenger years and it’s legacy.
Also really looking forward to the new regime being even more successful than Arsene.
Cannot wait till the season begins!!!!

Jon, sound advice and one I have been following for some time, I dip in occasionally to your posts just to see if you’ve moved in from the past or to see if there’s any vaguely intelligent content, sadly non detected, oh well I’ll check occasionally but won’t raise my hopes too high.

I don’t think we have to sell elneny bcoz CM’s are not just CM’s, there’s types of players that play in midfield like
Ramsey (box to box or no.10)
Banega (playmaker or no.10)
Xhaka (ball recycler n holding mid)
Torreira (ball winner n quick in transition)
Elneny (runner n support)
AMN (youngster)
So basically that’s 5 players that CAN play CM (not including AMN) but all have different jobs to do for different scenarios! You could say that Xhaka, Torreira and Elneny are the only real CMs
That don’t play further forward!
Our biggest problem is CB bcoz Sokratis is good but we need a tall strong commanding CB like Kompany or VV Dijk and Man Utd are getting Boatang from Munich so we need one!
Benatia is good for a season but we need someone better than Soyuncu if we are spending £35mil and we have to sell Mustafi no questions asked!

they’ve done that before and they all fail. These players don’t know how to play with eachother despite the insane amount of talent. If Messi isn’t having a good game, then that’s it. Only player that has ever stepped up when Messi wasn’t performing is Mascherano, but he’s past his prime at this point.

I dont know why but watching argentina play today against croatia had made me wonder if i was watching arsenal of 2017-18 season.
A total of 10 shots in entire 90 mins. And after conceding the silliest goal of this world cup , instead of going all out attack they could only mange one shot.
A lot of sideways and backward passes and trying to walk the ball into the net than whip crosses and let higuain attack with his head.

This proves beyond doubt that no matter who you have in your team ,be it messi,higuain, aguero di maria etc tactics and game management are of the greatest importance in the present day football, The one thing that we lacked for almodt 10 years until 2018.

Shekar 233,
So just enlighten us millions of Gooners who don’t necessarily agree with you and Jon Fox (I have no idea either way, so I will make it up to ten million trillion just tomake my post look impressive), how have you come to this startling and unproven conclusion that now, in 2018, we are being run using tactics and game management when we haven’t even played a game under the new manager?
Certainly hope you are correct in your assumptions, but let’s be a little bit more realistic in our adoration of the new manager!!

Oh ken1945…i understand that you love Arsene and donot want anyone to disrespect him or else you are off to bite thier head off.
But There is something called optimism this summer 2 months before our first game. Ask how many fans felt the same way last summer,like they are feeling now ?

And every summer we know what we can expect from Arsene in terms of tactics coz we could see his tactics from years before.
The same way we can see what Emery can do in terms of tactics from his years at PSG and Sevilla.

So i hope now you can understand why i have this feeling in 2018 and not during the years before.

And you need to understand … I give respect when it is due. That is why i said that we have been lacking tactics and game management for 10years not 22 years. So for about 12years he was a lot better that what he has been for the past decade.

Coz 2008 was the last season where arsenal had any fight and passion in the way we played. If not for the Eduardo leg break i guess we could have won the league that year.

And from there went down hill for 10 years. Loving the post wenger era. Wish we can fast farward our lives untill aug11th

But you think a new manger is all of sudden going to turn the same players into some kind of messi type players ,I was called an idiot on here the other night for expressing my opinion (which it looks like I’m not aloud to have )that we need to sign better players ,it doesn’t matter that we have a new manager ,the players we have or the ones we are signing just ain’t good enough .steve bould as been keepers in but the were fans saying he did fck all last season but now there’s a new manager mr bould is going to sort our defence out .
I hope I’m wrong about the team but I just can’t see us breaking into that top 4 ,which is still not good eneough for a team with the money we have ,o wanna see us aiming for the title not just top 4 ,but like I said the players are not good enough ,but we shall see when the season starts ,just my opinion (that dissent make me an idiot just a realist)

Lol messi type players?
I think you dont watch world cup.
You should have seen what messi did in 2 matches till now. Nada.
That is my whole point you dont need messi ,aguero, higuain to win things. You need the team to play to each others strengths, not trying to compete amongst themslves to be called the hero.
How many messis did liecester have when they won the PL?
How many ronaldos did Atl madrid have when they won la liga a few seasons ago?
How many messis did Monaco have when they won the league by pushing aside a super costly and super talented PSG?

I still wonder why people who want arsenal to fail just to prove that Arsene was a lot better are still calling themselves arsenal fans?
Why dont all those who support Arsene more than Arsenal can please go and support Arsene FC which he is likely to establish in french 3rd tier as it seems he is not getting any managerial job offers.

I wanted wenger out 6years Ago so that argument is a non starter ,Monaco won the league having spent a fortune when they all went there because it was a tax haven . My argument that the club need to spend money on quality players not this same spending on players that we have seen for the last 10 years ,look what auba as done since he joined ,money spent on quality brings quality .
And messi is one of the best players to ever grace the game just because the players around him are not performing don’t make him a bad player in 2 games

Surely that is the point we are trying to make to Shekar 233?
Some posts on here sound as if we are already champions!
Of course we can be optimistic about the coming season, but don’t go overboard and start comparing things when we have no idea what will actually happen.

By the way Shekar333, don’t get mixed up with who wanted Arsenal to lose.
I’m sure Jon Fox won’t mind me informing you that he wanted the club to lose every single game, including the cup final against Man City and the semi final against Atletico Madrid until Wenger had left the club.
You make your own mind up about that, but please don’t accuse others of doing this when it’s not true.
I do wish you would get your facts right, because it would save a lot of time having to correct you.
As far as I know, not one person has stated that they want EMERY to fail, but if you can point the post out, please do..
Finally, I support Arsenal not Arsene or Emery, but I hope they both succeed.
Unlike those of you who wanted Wenger to fail, I, and thousands of like-minded Gooners have always wanted the club to be successful.
Emery has my full support and he has done a few great things so far.
Just hope he is as successful as Wenger was and would love him to be even more successful.

were Argentina not thought of as the same level as them before these two games? Can’t just throw out the script b/c they got badly beaten. Messi may be the only reason they ever stood a chance, but they were just at the last WC final. You also leave Brazil out just because they had a poor start too, same with Germany. If Croatia were to beat either of those teams you’d seriously tell me it meant nothing?

In this game Croatia’s tactics weren’t anything special , they were trying to utilize strength of their star players Perisic , Mandzukic , Modric and Rakitic. Their game plan was mostly based on perisic crosses for Mandzukic and evidenced by the first half it wasn’t working much , their goals were because of Argentina’s mistakes. I’m not saying that Croatia can’t be great because they definitely have the potential to be but i’m saying that because of their win against Argentina we can’t deduce they are on the levels of the teams i mentioned.

before the world cup and based on Argentina’s qualifying games , i was saying that if they somehow get to the world cup they are not gonna do much , i didn’t mention Brazil because it’s obvious that they are still not cohesive enough , not just because of their game against swiss , but even in their friendlies their star players was the reason they won and if they want to win the world cup they need to train more together.

Germany’s problem is mainly because of their defense and their tendency to get forward , in some of their friendlies Hummels and kimmich were out of position most of the time and they took this problem to their game against Mexico , if they can fix that , they are a contender without a doubt , i personally would change hummels with rudiger.

England can also be a contender IF either their wingers step up their game or they play with a system that puts the focus on the strikers (Playing Vardy with Kane)

One simple truth- Pavon can’t beat his man,, his quick , hugs the touchline, but he just can’t dribble past players as you would expect him to….
Even his YouTube videos fail to convince me as a good dribbler… Just like Alexis Sanchez

he was terrible. His crosses hit nobody, absolutely ineffective. What happens to these Argentine players when they play for their country? All their prices just dropped after that horror show. Sampaoli, beyond clueless. Horrible lineup, zero tactics. I couldn’t tell you what their strategy was. It wasn’t even to center the play around Messi this time. It was just hoping talent alone would win. Well done Croatia. Completely exposed a team that has been poor for years.

I think this is the perfect time to get him though. What other top 6 club can offer him a starting spot? United have Sanchez (lmao), City have Sane, Chelsea have Hazard, LFC have Mane, and spurs are a joke so who cares. It’d be hard to convince board and Stan to splash the cash on a 19 year old who just came from Championship, but it would be well worth the investment

And this is the conclusion i detest, by your theory Messi, Aguero, Higuain, Dybala are flops??
C’mon, you can do better mate.
So you now rate Lozano ahead of the aforementioned? Because he scored a goal?….am disappointed!

The guy seems like someone with football knowledge but his utterance exposes him to be a fraud. Watching a game or two and suddenly he knows which player is a flop and which is not. How many time has told us here to go for Guedes, Pavon, Martins before he had a chance to look at them and now the are flop after seeing them for less than hour.

I really hope this speculation on Banega results in Elneny being sold. I cannot understand why any Gooner rates Elneny. He is just a willing workhorse with zero creativity, merely a player who gives his all but far, far from the standard we need. You have to be very easily pleased and also fooled, if you believe Elneny is going to help make us top four. He should never have been bought and should be let go. He might even bring a small profit on the realistic price of just £5 he cost. Waste of a better players place, say I. I could not see him even getting in Everton, Leicester or West Ham sides. If only Xhaka could also leave but he has signed a new deal. Sigh!

Just a way of getting a better fee for him. Contracts mean little if the club wants to sell you and would leave you to rot on the bench if you refuse to go, which Emery would surely do , should he refuse to leave. Emery was not appointed til MAY, so a March renewal means little, concerning if he is rated or not.

So let’s just get this right..we give a players new contracts in order to sell them for a high transfer fee!
Great strategy that, especially if the club CAN’T sell them on and have to pay the new salary till the contract runs out.
Perhaps we need to revisit this policy???

Ramsay, Xhaka and Elneny ARE bad and I wouldn’t miss any of them – or better still ALL of them – if they were sold. However Unai seems to think he can make proper footballers out of Ramsay and Xhaka so we’ll have to wait and see. Ramsay could be ok if he has nothing to do with defending, at which he is absolutely useless. We shall see.

Or were they just bad under a coach who hadn’t learned any new coaching skills for the last 25 years????

All this about selling elneny, xhaka, iwobi, etc. Let’s look at the squad properly. We need 25 players all of who can be born 1996 or before. Up to 17 of them can be non home grown and at least 8 can be non homegrown.
Currently we have 28 players that fit into the above categories. 6 yes 6 of them are goalkeepers, so u would assume at least 3 won’t make the 25 whilst the likes of Jenkinson, bramall, akpom, Campbell and Perez are surely ahead of elneny in the departure queue. If those 8 players leave the squad, we are then down to just 20 players, so plenty of room for new additions and no need to sell decent squad players like elneny, xhaka iwobi, etc.

Agreed goonerjack ,all 3 are not the players to win us the title ,even though some people on think all of a sudden a new manager is going to turn them into world beaters overnight ,if any of these players were any good we would have seen it by now ,and like you said the only one I would keep is Ramsey and that would be as a bench player ,but seems the manager as different ideas

First off Banega is an attacking midfielder so no chance and no need to sign him. Torreira looks like a Wilshere/carzola replacement. Criticism on Coquelin is very harsh everyone has been trash when santi got injured. Given the amount of height we’ve lost from our game play (Giroud, Mertesacker exc.) I think we need to sign Nzonzi or even Fellaini (on a free). The more physical teams in the league will bully us in the air otherwise

It amazes me how John fox turns every post here as an opportunity to insult and abuse the most successful manager in our history, it amazes me how he thinks he’s the only one with ample knowledge of afc, how he even thinks there was no coaching going on under wenger’s era is even the most idiotic statement ever,in 22 years over 100 players has left afc,how many of those players has theoretically become better players after their departures, , wenger came saw and conquered and left as a legend, could we have bn this bigger without wenger? Definitely no way, the major reason wenger is being celebrated and will still be celebrated today is his ingenuity , in the course of wenger’s 22 years stay as our coach, leeds united who use to be our big rival has suffered multiple relegations and there is no hope of coming back, Aston Villa who used to be our other big rival has suffered relegation and in a big financial mess, Newcastle who was a very strong force before the arrival of wenger has suffered 2 relegations yet with zero trophies, Tottenham who was almost @ our level has only finished ahead of us twice in 22 years with just a paltry capital one cup trophy, everton despite spending almost same amount of money as wenger has won zero trophies since he came and has only qualified for the champions league once, the last time I checked Liverpool who used to be kings in England has only one trophy in the last 10 years, the only 2 clubs apart from man u who has done better than us in recent times man city and Chelsea has bn bank rolled by their multi billionaire owners, the two clubs has had a net spend of over 900m pounds in that period while wenger for over 22 years has a net spend of slightly over 200m pounds, it’s no longer news that wenger is the architect of our position today as one of the richest clubs in the world, despite building the emirate stadium and our state of the art training centre he kept us in champions league places for over 20 years, and made arsenal FC one of the most popular clubs in the world today, if the fool thinks the distractions of last year will make us forget a legend who sacrificed his most productive years to make afc a better club, then he must be joking, the new management team can be said to be doing well in the summer, but u can only know how good the guys r when the season starts, I will surely give them support but nothing can make me disrespect wenger bcoz afc was privileged to have him, and he will remain our hero!! Torreira is a nyz guy, but is he the best we need to to have? Dude is easily bn shoved off the ball and he falls very easily, he’s never a kante or a cazorla, how he will cope with the physicality of English football determines how good he’s gonna be, let’s not hatch our eggs before they r being laid!

If you are going to quote my comments about Wenger, please do so accurately and do not make up words I did not say and then blame me for “saying” them. I have repeatedly said that in the last decade, which is ten , NOT 22 YEARS, there was littlle evidence of DEFENSIVE, not whole team, coaching. But it is easy to distort comments in order to ridicule them. Try ridiculing the actual words I wrote and not what I did NOT write.

We need to sell Welbz, bring in 10m then sign Martins on a free.
Ospina needs to go next as we have just signed Leno, another 5m added to pot.
Campbell & Perez next, maybe 4m&10m.
Lastly would be Mustafi if we go and Buy Soyuncu & looks like he wants to come, won’t be cheap. Sokratis is in also, so paired with Soyuncu with Mavraponas/Chambers no2 until Koss is back. 15m for Shrokran!

If we want Banega then offer Eleney in exchange or go get William Carvalho on a free & get him into a hard pre season programme as he looks unfit but could be quality for Arsenal. IF he sharpens up,as has all the tools &free,could be great for Arsenal. Plus gives Gelson & Himself someone to settle with in London from Lisbon.

Could be a good start of the new era & not that expensive as we are not in the UCL so spending has to be done wisely. If we manage to win the Europa League or finish in TOP4 then big spending could commence after that!

Maybe Gazidas will also pull a rabbit out of the hat on the last day of transfer window with a big signing! Did it with Ozil remember & we really won’t have spent too much getting this squad together for the 18/19 season under Unai Emery.

Everybody has their opinions about the players just signed and incoming players, but we should not be so much optimistic, the transfer department(mislinat and sanellhi) has done a great job by wrapping up player deal in time unlike past seasons, but the positive thing is the presence of Unai Emery,our new manager,this guy is a motivator,watch him against Liverpool when he won the second European league, sevilla were traded with one goal in first half,after d break, as he was coming out of the dressing room,he was annoyed, with blood in his eyes,and this can be noticed on the field of play as sevilla dominate the possession, pressing very hard,overturned the one goal deficit and won the game 2-1.